


One Floo Over - Ninja Path

by nimodes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-05-15 00:13:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5764360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nimodes/pseuds/nimodes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>starting with Chapter 2 of One Floo Over, the ninja path.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

I chose Cleric, the natural choice among these three options. So when I saw that a further glitch had clicked the Ninja option, I naturally had a sinking feeling.

I freed myself from the restraint quickly, then instinctively went to the whole stealth route.

Legendary Magician meets Sneaky Assassin apparently was the ninja role here. I could cling to surfaces and be unseen like a camouflaged Spider-Man as long as I kept this up. Getting out of the Intensive Care Ward and then the hospital was almost shamelessly easy.

At which point I made my way onto a train, found a bathroom and got a good look at myself in the identity I'd be stuck in for the duration of this mission.

A newspaper left on the counter said that it was May 27, 1985. Which meant little to me actually.

I said something in Draconic that doesn't translate very well, but is quite impolite, when I saw my reflection.

My hair was bushy, black, thick, and very likely uncontrollable from the shagginess level. Only double-checking to make sure I didn't have a tail kept me from panicking at the thought of being in THAT kind of reality.

I was a seven year old boy. Tanned. Eurasian from the features. Thickly built in a way that your average seven year old was NOT. Still fairly limber and flexible, but with a layer of thick muscle that indicated some serious time in physical training. Or some form of screwed up genetics, or both. The eyes actually looked red.

Examining my hands indicated the answer was possibly "both" genetics and heavy training. A few small scars and thickened segments of skin indicated the training part, while the fingers themselves seemed unusually long to me.

The outfit I'd already noticed was entirely in dark grey and included a "hoodie" style jacket. I popped up to the ceiling and made my way outside to find a quiet out-of-the-way spot to do some thinking.

Inventory was still a fair time away before I could even find out what was usable. It seemed like this particular Incarnation or Avatar was an anime-style ninja. Which probably meant no corporate espionage or jabbing someone with a poisoned needle in a subway station. Which generally wasn't the sort of work someone from my agency generally did anyway.

That said, I could go over my skills and what I had on me, and then try to figure out what I was supposed to do from that.

\- Interlude 2 -

"-meanwhile the costs of potion ingredients, particularly aphodel blossoms have gone up again," said Snape from his position down the table. "It is... quite vexing."

"Then we should move on to -" began Septima Vector.

Sybill Trelawney stood up.

"Trelawney?" asked Septima.

Sybill began floating up off the floor, her head thrown back and eyes glowing like spotlights.

"Fate Shifts!"

Each word reverberated through the room, the voice of Sybill Trelawney mixed with other voices.

"An Outsider Comes!  
And Pattern Breaks!  
The Dark Lord Returns,  
And More Enemies Makes.  
Secrets Are Shared,  
Dangers Are Bared!  
Know Light's Ally  
By Red Eyes In The Dark!"

There was a thud as the Divinations professor hit the floor completely limp and unconscious.

There was silence briefly before Severus Snape felt the need to observe something. "That wasn't how her last divination went."

"Agreed," said Albus Dumbledore thoughtfully.

"Rather overdramatic in fact," said Snape.

"Overdramatic?" asked Septima Vector from where she was checking Sybill for injuries. "I very nearly leapt out the door when she did that. Professor Flitwick conjured up a Protego."

"Old duelling reflexes," answered Filius Flitwick defensively. He HAD been rather startled.

Minerva stood up herself. "I'll be down the hall a bit. In the meantime, what exactly did any of that mean?"

"It's a Prophesy," said Septima. "We'll only know what it means when it's too late."

\- Interlude 2 end -

I looked over the basics. My dark grey hoodie jacket had a number of internal pockets for all sorts of things. Beneath that were a battleship-gray jumper and long-sleeve shirt.

Other than a bewildering variety of weapons, there was a Japanese-style calligraphy kit, a letter written on a form of psychic paper, a set of plastic cards, and a small compass that was NOT pointing towards the North. In fact, it seemed to be switching from two different points as if it couldn't quite make up its mind.

One was in London. The other was North by Northeast.

There was also a standard bigger-on-the-inside pouch that contained a really nice kodachi. At seven years old though - I was not going to be able to wield it at all well.

The plastic cards were various forms of identification. Probably the sort to change lettering. One was a Japanese student ID, another was a license proclaiming membership in something called UNIT, a third was a local Student ID, and so on.

Putting everything back where I'd gotten it, I had to consider that the compass was likely pointing to mission objectives. The letter was a letter of introduction, rune-warded, with the areas indicating various details to be filled in when the thing was activated for the first time.

Well, the London one was closer. Take a quick nap in a corner and then investigate that one.

Having the name 'Hayate' while on this mission left me a bit uneasy. While I couldn't remember anyone with that name in any TV series I watched several lifetimes ago, it felt like some detail was just out of reach.

On a hunch, I tried bringing up my status through that Avatar interface that Hephaestus had cobbled together for DIO that ended up getting a lesser copy with the RRO.

NAME: Hayate Nakajima  
Strength: 13  
Perception: 15  
Endurance: 16  
Charisma: 13  
Intelligence: 12  
Agility: 18  
Luck: 11  
Ki: 29  
AGE: 7. Weight: 25kg. Height: 128cm.  
Notable skills: Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, Bukijutsu, Kenjutsu, Stealth.

I blinked at that, my plans for a nap falling aside. I knew what Kenjutsu was - Japanese swordskills. What was the rest of that though?

By the time I'd gone through the unfamiliar terms, I discovered I was well past the point where the nearer objective had been and I was on the path to reach the further.

Well, if it came to that - now that I had seen what some of the skills available were - I could make a few plans.

Genjutsu had turned out to be Illusionist spells. Making your opponent see or hear or experience something that wasn't real or solid. Some spells, like "Hell Viewing", brought out what your target's greatest fears were. Some, like "Vertigo", caused a disruption of a particular sense. I only had five of those.

Ninjutsu turned out to be ninja versions of regular mage spells that I'd run across and I had twelve of those. Which indicated that when I established this particular identity I'd spent a really long time as this ninja. Most seemed to be of the sort you'd expect of ninja running missions in and out of fortresses. It also turned out that my clinging to walls like Spider-Man was actually a ninjutsu technique.

Taijutsu turned out to be martial arts. The "Basic Style" was mainly a disable-and-escape type. Quick strikes to impair or knock out an opponent and then get away. The second style was more of a straightforward martial arts style - Flying Dragon Style Wu Shu. Circular motions for the most part.

Bukijutsu - general weapons skills, particularly thrown weapons. Apparently my Agility score gave bonuses to that. I knew that when Hephaestus had designed the whole interface thing he'd been playing some RPG games and had gotten very enthusiastic about some of them, but putting everything down as ranks just seemed wrong when applied to real life weapon use.

So - definitely an anime-style ninja and not the "wait three days in the bottom of an outhouse waiting to stab your target" sort of ninja. With disguise and rapid-move and exchange techniques - definitely the secret-agent magician sort.

Hmmm. Looked like I'd have to exit the train very soon.


	2. Chapter 3 - Ninja Path

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which further separation of plotlines, and further derailment of the canon story, continues.

Ninja Path - 3

Harry Potter by JK Rowling.

\-- --

It took me three days to investigate the area to my satisfaction and have an idea of what my assignment was.

At my first approach to the old English manor, I checked and the paperwork was filling itself out. Naturally I had to sidetrack so I could read up on it and understand my role in all this.

The Reality Relief Office doesn't do much directly. For various reasons we can NOT do whatever needs done directly. Preparing the hero, advising the good guys, making sure Person A runs into Person B - that sort of thing. On occasion we do prophesies. We used to do the "unlock this door here" and "drop this supply here" mission too but that got grabbed and automated by the Divine Intervention Office recently.

I think it was recent anyway. Damn memory still has more holes than a kitchen sponge.

Finally, at the third day, I thought I had everything down as much as I was going to.

It was shortly after noon local time when I approached the manor, using a high speed transportation ninjutsu called Shunshin.

I landed just short of the doorway and rang the bell, then went to one knee in the usual "shinobi before lord" pose. Honestly, I had no idea what they called it but considering the Japanese tendency to give long hard-to-pronounce names to darn near everything - just call it a shinobi kneeling pose and leave it at that.

"Yes?" asked an old woman holding a stick. "What?"

"My pardon," I said. "I am Hayate. Is this the manor house of the ancient and noble family of Longbottom?"

"Perhaps," said the woman cautiously.

"Is this the line of Longbottom that produced the exemplary Neiges Longbottom, hero of the Battle of Iron Mountain?" I asked, remaining in my kneeling position.

"I think I did hear something about that," admitted the woman.

"I am here to serve the heir of the Longbottom family, as payment on that life-debt," I told her.

"Ah," said the woman. "Is that what this is about? Well."

I hadn't eaten for quite some time, which my stomach reminded me in a particularly loud manner.

"My apologies." That wasn't exactly how this was supposed to go. Unless this was an anime, which I was pretty sure it was not.

"We do not require any helpers at this time," said Augusta, closing the door.

I continued kneeling there for an hour, as this would be expected of a ninja of my age. Finally the leg cramps got to me and I used Shunshin again to leave. Had to get something to eat after all, and that was about as well as I had expected the initial meeting to go.

I had gone over my list of "ninjutsu" and found that they could be fit into three categories: Combat, Stealth Operations, and Utility. Combat was something I wanted to practice. Not that I expected to last very long, other than the usual "stalling the big bad for the hero to get away" scene. Which usually ended with the death of the agent, then moving on to the next assignment.

Whatever the case, I wanted to practice the combat ninjutsu after getting some food and water from a vending machine.

One - you needed to be familiar with various details of any weapon before you used it. Range and effect were things one had to take into account especially with spells or spell-like effects. Two - being able to breathe out a coiling dragon formed entirely of fire was just too damn cool not to use when you had the chance. Even if the thing was only half as long as my arm that was just too freaking damn cool.

Well, that and I was trying to change the shape of the flame-beast. An oriental dragon in England didn't quite fit so I was trying for a hawk-shape.

There was a simpler version which simply threw a glob of fire in a particular direction, but that wasn't nearly as much fun. You also couldn't adjust the path to startle birds that were getting a bit close.

Stealth Operations were more useful. One was a simple Part-Of-The-Background technique, not actually being invisible but people would tend not to notice the user. Another was a technique called Henge or Transformation where you changed your appearance. Making yourself look like someone else was simple, making yourself look like a jacket someone decided to hang on a chair several stages of difficulty higher.

Utility was just that - things the ninja could do to make their life a lot easier. Sticking to walls like Spider-Man was a technique, running across water was an advanced technique, switching your position with a chair was a technique.

Throwing a knife with a little piece of paper you could cause to explode was also a technique, but that was something called fuuinjutsu.

Overall, the main ability of this variation on the ninja template seemed to be Reinforce. Which was something of a catch-all as some universes had mages of various kinds having their own versions of the spell/technique/art. You directed energy into various body parts to strengthen or enhance them, or overall increase durability.

I'd just gotten to a nice little Fish & Chips place when I idly flipped over a couple of reddish bolts of energy that interrupted my lunch to get a better look at the two guys who'd apparently teleported to a section of road nearby and taken exception to my appearance.

There was a startled yelp from the girl who'd sold me the lunch so I crossed off the possibility of her involvement.

Killing the two of them would be fairly simple actually. They were close enough I could hit both of them with throwing daggers with explosive tags. Since I didn't know who they were, I was wary that they might not actually be the Bad Guys in this particular environment.

Yeah, I know. People attack you, it's normal to assume the worst and most of the time you'd be right. For all I knew these were members of an international criminal organization devoted to world domination through the acquisition of rare collectible trading cards. Hey, I've run into lamer plotlines. Not very often, I admit.

They were wand users, like the other wizard-types locally, so I just hid and waited for their approach.

"Did he just do a wandless disillusionment?"

"So much for him being a muggle kid, but was that accidental magic?"

"Has to be. Oh, you want to obliviate the girl?"

"Where'd SHE go?"

"Check behind the counter."

I wasn't sure what 'obliviate' meant, but it sure didn't sound good. Consigning someone to oblivion might mean killing them by disintegration or something. Well, in that case, now that they were both facing away from hiding spot.

I snuck closer, one apparently having some extra sense because he started turning, and slapped tags on the back that I activated as soon as I was no longer in contact with them. Electrical charges went out and caused the two to collapse.

Then it was just a matter of disarming the two, using some ninja wire to tie them up, and then finding the clerk.

Young girl, maybe sixteen or seventeen, red hair, eyes that looked a bit peculiar. Gray but the color seemed to shift depending on the light. "You okay?"

"What was all that?!" asked the girl, sounding a bit panicked but that wasn't unexpected.

"Sorry about that," I told her. "I'm a ninja, they're probably after me."

"A ninja?" she asked.

"Anyway, I'm just here in the area because of a debt of honor owed to a local family," I told her. "Ever seen a ninja movie? They get a lot of stuff wrong but not everything."

"I think they were Aurors," said the girl after calming down a bit.

"Aren't those the local magic-cops?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Well, just as well I didn't kill them," I quipped. I noticed the two were stirring. Well, one was beginning to stir and the other one was conscious now and faking it. Have to remember that local wizards apparently required a bit more to put them down for any length of time. "So, when they were threatening to 'obliviate' you - they weren't going to hurt you?"

"I'm... I'm a squib," said the girl, looking deeply ashamed for some reason. "They wouldn't have obliviated me if they knew."

"What's a squib?" I asked.

"It means she's from a magical family but can't do magic herself," said the one who wasn't faking unconsciousness.

"Oh," I said. "Why were you attacking me, then? Don't you know that attacking a ninja is usually not a really good idea?"

"What's a ninja?" asked the talkative one.

"A ninja is an elite operative who specializes in stealth and what I think you locally call 'Black Ops'," I told them. "My clan owes the Longbottom family a debt of honor and I've come here to pay that debt by serving their family. From what I've heard they were nearly wiped out by some local criminal group and the heir could use a bodyguard."

"A 'Black Ops' type, eh?" asked the talkative Auror.

"If you and your acting-unconscious friend there will agree to not attack me, I'll let you loose," I offered. "I'd like to get back to eating."

"Moody is gonna rip us both a new one for this," commented the talkative one.

It turned out that the salesgirl of the local "Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips" was named Penelope Greengrass and of some established wizard family that basically disowned anyone not showing great magical power. Her father had been a squib of the Greengrass family who'd married a squib of the Malfoy family, and they'd broken up after they'd sired a girl who also had no magical power.

I explained, and demonstrated, that I was NOT using the local magical system and didn't have a wand anyway. I was instead using the traditions of a particular group of magic-wielding spies and assassins and therefore didn't have a clue about their regulations about Underage Sorcery and Statute Of Secrecy and the like. I also pointed out that in Japan any local non-magical seeing a ninja would expect a ninja to pull out some magic or trick because, well, ninja.

"So, do you think..." Penelope was fidgeting a lot after reheating my dinner.

"Ninja techniques are only passed on along clan lines," I told her. "I might try teaching young Mister Longbottom a few tricks just to increase his chances of surviving."

"So you can be reached at the Longbottom Manor?" asked one of the Aurors.

"Yes. Even if the Lady of the Manor turned me down initially, it is a matter of honor that I protect the young Lord," I told him. Which was essentially true as far as I could tell that was most likely my mission in this universe.

Next dinner, some additional training, and then I should be able to find some tree or something to sleep in for the night.


	3. Stately Longbottom Manor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> where a ninja bodyguard is tested.

NINJA SIDE  
Chapter 3  
A ninja stole the disclaimer.

\-- --

I turned up at the Manor's entry bright and early, and promptly began evading various bolts of energy. I started with acrobatics, proceeded on to the shunshin rapid-movement technique, followed with a few substitutions that saw garden statuary explode or briefly glow.

After a few minutes of this there was a brief lull, and I used a pair of techniques together. A substitution (Ninjutsu: Kawarimi) with a linked disguise technique (Ninjutsu: Henge) had a garden statue with my appearance collapse whilst I hid in the shrubbery and then did a disguise with movement so that I now resembled the statue.

The old woman approached the statue, saw some detail that was off, and immediately went on her guard.

"You do know that it is an honor thing and that I am here to protect Mister Longbottom, right?" I used a ventriloquism technique (Ninjitsu: Fukuwajutsu) to give that message, and winced as the origin point for the voice was immediately hit with an energy bolt that caused a poor rosebush to catch fire.

Actually, by this point I was a bit winded, so that being able to catch my breath was quite welcome. On the other hand, as soon as she figured out where I was - I fully expected several blasts to be heading my way.

Instead I heard a brief laugh from the woman. "Well, now. Not exactly a muggle, are you?"

I used the ventriloquism technique again, this time projecting the voice behind the remains of a decorative fountain. "No, Madame Longbottom. Ninja were generally of two types, as the stories from the muggle Japanese and Chinese sources attest. There were the common spies and assassins, usually disenfranchised samurai warriors or self-taught spies. There were also the wandering magicians and workers of wonders. Base ninja and mythic ninja if you would."

"And I take it that if you were here to harm me, you would have already done so?" asked Madame Longbottom.

"I certainly had several opportunities to attack," I agreed. "However, it is considered bad form at the very least to attack one's employer."

"'Employer'? There was no mention of payment involved," said Longbottom.

"No, Lady Longbottom," I admitted. "I was not requesting payment either. Merely -"

"Yes?" asked Longbottom.

"Very clever, Lady Longbottom," I congratulated her. "Your invisible companion is doing a fair job of tracking me. It appears I must, how do you English say it? 'Step up my game.'"

"What? 'Invisible companion'?" Lady Longbottom cocked her head. "I have no idea what you mean."

The lack of response was clear enough indication of the lie. Actually I was a little impressed. Whoever it was had an invisibility effect with a muting of sound. "Then you won't mind if I attack this intruder?"

"If there is an intruder, I would insist," said Augusta Longbottom.

I smiled, cancelled the ventriloquism technique, and prepped two others. "By your command."

A bird flitting overhead was no doubt quite surprised to find itself the target of a substitution technique and now considerably closer to ground level. "Ninpo! Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire!"

I could do the fireball technique in mid-air, the fire-dragon modified to fire-hawk would require me to set my feet and brace. Might have to work on that.

There was a startled shout and someone trailing fire behind him appeared out of the moderate blaze I had just created. That gave me a better target and I could switch from area-effect to select target. "Ninpo! Shuriken Bunshin!"

Admittedly the real shuriken was the only one that could do any damage, and not much at that, but it looked like dozens of throwing stars had just appeared in what would be a fairly painful shower when they hit.

"Protego."

I stopped my assault as Madame Longbottom cast a shielding spell around the "intruder" and waited.

The intruder put out the remaining flames and began coughing.

"Very well, Mister Ninja," said the Longbottom Matriarch. "Perhaps you might have some use after all."

\-- --

Augusta and Algernon Longbottom were cautious. Understandably so. I'd picked up bits and pieces about this world by listening in on conversations and paying attention to the odd details. Also reading, as I was able to grab some of these odd books.

If this magical world was trying to remain hidden, you'd think they'd make more of an effort. Maybe create a sub-dimension or literally go underground or something. Instead you just found the right area and you could grab a magazine left behind at a table where the pictures had loop animation. Said magazine having a title like "Witch Weekly"?

Witch Weekly being a knock-off apparently of Woman's Weekly which was a British magazine dealing with similar things. Except that "How To De-Gnome Your Garden" and "Anti-Acne Charms" were apparently something beyond an April Fools joke.

The Daily Prophet, according to what I'd overheard, was both the primary source for news in wizarding Britain and just slightly more accurate than the sort of magazine that one saw at the checkout line at the supermarket.

Also, according to what I had overheard within my first day of being tentatively aligned with the Longbottom family, I may have made a significant error in that I was protecting the wrong child. Apparently there was a "Harry Potter" who had saved the wizarding world at one year of age. Which was actually fairly impressive as a one-year old doing anything more complicated than not crapping on themselves was pretty darn good.

Why Neville was apparently my mission would be a question to ponder for quite some time.

Still, some adaptation was needed.

I was rather taken aback when my father showed up. Not my father as in my original lifetime's father, after at least dozens of lifetimes and my current "holes in my memory big enough to drive an asteroid mineship through" condition - I could barely remember a dim image. No, my father of THIS incarnation/identity due to the retcon functions of my insertion into this reality.

I was alone at the moment, doing something that the wizardly sorts couldn't make sense of. Physical conditioning.

The sun seemed to dim as if it had passed behind a cloud and the buzz of insects and calls of birds abruptly cut off. Naturally I had a throwing knife in one hand and the other poised to cast a fire technique before I realized what had set me off. It's a ninja sort of thing.

The figure that stepped out of the shadows was tall, thin, and wearing an old Victorian set of clothing.

"Huh. You're Death, aren't you?" I asked. "I was expecting either the cloaked skeleton or a pale-skinned woman."

"I CAN DO BOTH OR EITHER," said Death, his voice somehow like the chiseling of words onto a gravestone. "THIS SEEMED APPROPRIATE."

"Nice voice effect," I complimented.

"ONE TRIES, BUT IS RARELY APPRECIATED," said Death with a nod of his head. "IT IS ODD TO FIND THAT ONE HAS A SON."

"I'm rather surprised to find that my father is Death, an Incarnation of a Fundamental Principle," I replied. "Any objections?"

"NO. I AM ACTUALLY SOMEWHAT AMUSED," responded Death. "I USUALLY DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR SUCH THINGS, YOU UNDERSTAND."

"Indeed," I told him. "You have to be omnipresent just to get your job done. So - social call?"

"IT SEEMED APPROPRIATE TO MEET AS WE ARE FAMILY, OF SORTS," responded Death.

"Well, these 'Death Eaters' are going to be in for a surprise if we start getting into talking about family," I responded. "I don't suppose you have my mission details or duration?"

"PROTECT AND TRAIN NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM, THOUGH THAT WAS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE," said Death. "AS FOR DURATION - AS LONG AS IT TAKES. OH, AND SON? EAT YOUR VEGETABLES AND DON'T FORGET TO WASH BEHIND THE EARS."

"Yes, father," I said. I'd felt something change just before he'd spoken, and I'd guessed we had a spy show up. Or a scrying attempt.

It might be interesting to find out who and what, but I would expect that a meeting with Death would start a few rumors.

\-- --

I finally met Neville Longbottom and was not immediately impressed.

He was the same age as me, but that was about the amount we had in common. He wasn't grossly fat, but definitely on the pudge side.

His "Uncle Algie" had just introduced the child and had said something to the effect of Neville not showing any signs of having magic.

"Excuse me, sir," I said as soon as he stopped. "He's magical. I can tell from here. He's certainly several times stronger than that girl at the Fish & Chips place."

"What, the one in town?" asked Algernon Longbottom. "What do you mean 'you can tell'?"

"If I concentrate on it, I can tell how much magic someone has," I said, waving it off and then pointing. "Ms. Longbottom is over there, invisible. You yourself are magical, so is Neville. Heck, that spider over there has a mana bar."

Did I mention that apparently concentrations of magical energy apparently caused magical creatures to congregate nearby? Because they did. And a spider about the size of a grown man's foot had both a health and a mana bar when I defocused my vision enough to check.

Augusta Longbottom abruptly appeared and blasted the spider in question.

"Uncle Algie" had turned rather pale but went over and picked up a spider leg about as long and thick as one of his fingers.

"Rather nasty that," I commented. "Good shooting, Madame Longbottom."

"I think, perhaps, we should speak about what your 'ninja' abilities are," said Madame Longbottom. "Do you see any more of those?"

"With your permission then," I said, holding up a hand with three kunai in it. "I think some pest control might be in order as part of my duties safeguarding the young Master?"

"Very well then," said Augusta.

I began checking equipment, fully aware of what had not been said. This was a further test. In fact, I would not at all be surprised if at least some of the creatures were brought in or conjured up for that specific purpose.

I was seven, the same age as Neville. Determining my competence as a bodyguard and ability to handle magical menaces was quite understandable.

This was a job interview and placement test, whatever they'd discussed or determined had gotten them past the whole "dangerous stranger" thing. Maybe they had an intent-revealing spell? Now they wanted to see if I could do the job.

I could have just used throwing knives and eliminated the various pests. That might impress Neville but not the two adults. So, not everything I could do - but a fair representation seemed in order.

A cobra rose up, hissing. A kunai went through the hooded area and pinned it to a post. Some people think of kunai as just a ninja throwing knife but it's actually a fairly clever multi-use tool for masonry. Chisel, plumb-bob, jointer, and trowel at the same time. Only the point itself was sharp in a typical kunai. That it could be thrown a good three meters and go through a moderately sized snake was merely a good use of an existing tool.

More snakes slithered out of a bush, leaving me to go through the ninjutsu motions quickly of a ninja spell and then breathe out a blast of flames to incinerate the lot of them.

A centipede the length of my arm was the recipient of a pair of senbon, which were accupuncture-style needles with grooves for poison to be added. I'd figured out how to make a general purpose paralytic with the local plants, but I hadn't had the opportunity to mix some up much less try it yet. Still, insect so piercing the exoskeleton and pinning it to the ground would be enough.

I wasn't sure what the beast that popped up out of a hole in the ground was. Some sort of naked mole-rat thing with a nasty looking bite. This particular kunai had a blast-tag that turned the beast into tumbling chunks of meat and bone.

A two-headed serpent started making a noise like it was inhaling. I didn't wait to see what it was going to spit. Could have been poison, fire, or acid. A kunai with a shock tag interrupted that and gave the things seizures.

"Bunshin," I said, naming the clone technique as I activated it. I was attempting to show off, after all. If this had been real, it would have been silent and I would chain a substitute in there to confuse things. "Shuriken Storm."

The creature that had popped up from a hedge strongly resembled a carrion crawler from some Dungeons & Dragons universe. Fifteen shuriken peppered it, any single one being a minor nick but when you stuck a bunch of them it wasn't as easy to shrug off. The blast tag on one of them went off a moment later.

I leapt up, using the reinforce technique to increase the strength of my legs in a pulse at the right time, ran up a post, leapt to the gazebo roof, then leapt over their fishpond and used the flashier "Fire Shuriken" technique.

Unfortunately, this meant I was burning through my reserves fairly quickly. I could do stealth for hours. I could imitate Spider-man for maybe an hour at a time. I could do prepared tags with hardly any effort. Since I was flash-preparing tags and using everything together while pushing my physical performance close to the maximum, I couldn't go more than a few more minutes before I'd be left panting for breath.

A reticulated python that had to be seven meters in length rose up. By the time it had finished rising, I had landed and was racing through hand-seals. "Fire Release! Firehawk!"

Hawk versus snake. Snake lost.

I idly threw a kunai behind me without looking. A small semi-reptilian creature expired.

There was silence briefly from the three Longbottoms. It was broken briefly by Neville stating his desire to learn how to do that.

Augusta Longbottom considered briefly, using a wand-flick to put out each fire. "Messy."

"But effective," I said. "Poisons would have been better, but I don't have much available yet. Wanted to work on healing potions first."

"Oh?" said the Longbottom Matriarch, sounding intrigued. "Let's see what a seven-year-old 'ninja' can brew."

\-- --

"You made this how?" asked Severus Snape, eyeing the results of his tests on the little vial of red fluid.

"A recently acquired retainer to the Longbottom Clan made that," said Augusta Longbottom. "Honestly, I'd have chosen someone else for the evaluation, but you are the best that actually had time available."

"This is not a standard mixture," said Snape, ignoring the last part as he lifted the small vial and peered at it. "It is more potent than the typical healing potion, though apparently only by roughly ten percent. I cannot tell if that is due to the skill of the crafter, or if it is the recipe itself. It seems to have properties of Skele-Gro as well, though it is much less effective at that. Curious."

"So it seems effective," said Augusta Longbottom with a nod. Much as she disliked associating with the man, give him a potions problem to concentrate on and he could become almost pleasant.

"Yes," said Snape, clearly distracted to the point where his usual sneer was missing. "Do you mind if I keep this? I think some further testing may yield interesting results. Oh, and what name did your retainer call it?"

"Yes, and he called it a 'shinobi elixir' at one point," said Augusta. "Also, he referred to it as a 'Elixir of Curing Serious Wounds' as I recall. Somewhat of a clumsy name."

"So call it 'Wound Heal' for short," said Severus. "Interesting. Near instant effect if I'm not mistaken, and I rarely am. Hmmm. I wonder."

Realizing that the potions expert was completely wrapped up in speculation and curiosity, Augusta merely left a few galleons for the testing cost and left on her own. Most likely the man wouldn't notice for awhile and would simply be pleased that nobody was around to bother him at that point.

She had one more call to make, an old friend to see what she knew.

\-- --

"Minerva."

"Augusta."

"Tea?"

"Please." Minerva McGonagall was quiet for a moment as the tea tray floated onto the table. "I take it that there's something you wanted to discuss?"

"A young man Neville's age showed up," said Augusta as she poured tea. "A life debt to be paid. A 'ninja' - whatever that is."

"An odd word," said Minerva. "Foreign?"

Augusta conjured an image of the person in question.

"'Red Eyes In The Dark'," said Minerva after a moment.

"What?" asked Augusta.

"Sybil Trelawney has issues as a teacher, but she is one of those with the gift or curse of true prophesy," said Minerva, wondering how much she could say before consulting with Dumbledore. "If this is him, then he is considered 'Light's Ally' from what I overheard."

Augusta raised an eyebrow. "Trelawney? Sybil Trelawney? I've only met her once, and I'm not sure I would place any confidence in her predicting that the sun would rise the next day."

"She knows her subject but perhaps her day-to-day predictions are not entirely accurate," said Minerva. "I was present. This was different. I'll have to check further."

"You need to check with your Headmaster, who really likes to control things," said Augusta between sips of tea. "I want the full prophesy, whether I believe it or not. The boy has a number of odd skills and seems quite motivated to help Neville survive. With some of the Death Eaters still out there, a chance to prove himself might need to be arranged."

\-- --

It turns out that I had been wrong in a basic assumption. The stats shown were not a "1 to 20" scale and pretty much high average.

Something of the file corruption, or a result of the ninja bloodlines, or something else - but I was actually a low-grade superhuman. Not "bend steel in my bare hands" sort of superhuman, but still on a level with some supernatural creatures. If I tried hand-to-hand with a vampire, I'd be able to crush the lower ranked minion types but be in serious trouble with anything that had a few centuries developing their strength.

On a human level the scale was "1 to 10" with the lowest level of strength barely able to lift a 10kg weight. I found myself wishing that it had been on the Hero System scale, which was more exacting, but it meant a few things.

The advantage wasn't quite as overwhelming as I might have hoped. Apparently magic normally reinforced humans somewhat - wizards lived longer and generally ignored nonmagical diseases. On the downside, there were magical diseases that hit the wizards that could be quite devastating that wouldn't infect a nonmagical at all.

You might wonder why a wizard suffering from such a disease didn't have their magic suppressed, starving out the disease. When I asked it might have been in another language as the wizarding types couldn't fathom the concept. Finally the answer they gave was that all magical curatives tapped into the magic of their patient. This was then corrected to most curatives and both of the adult Longbottoms got very contemplative as they considered something.

The reason for that discussion was that I was not brewing potions in the commonly accepted manner.

Which made sense. I didn't have any training in the local version, plus I was not using magical creatures and plants as the local custom. Those were difficult to find from one reality to another and could look the same but be very different.

So I was using a version worked out by some Chinese einherjar whose name I mangled everytime I tried to pronounce it. You took a dandelion, imbued its essence and enhanced a particular existing quality - then drew out that essence in order to combine it with similar essences from other similar sources. I wasn't the best at this sort of thing, not even within the crew of misfits and well-meaning nonstandards of the Reality Relief Office. Xiao Yun had that honor, with Syrion the SemiFallen running a close second. They were also better at that fuuinjutsu sort of thing than I was.

I needed to have a few healing potions on hand though - so I needed to make them as I wasn't sure the local versions would work on me. While I was at it,I could look for materials that had the requisite qualities I was looking for. Which meant that a trip to a health food store in "muggle territory" was to be planned at some point. Garlic, for example, was commonly used to make anti-disease potions of that sort.

\-- --

[Status]  
[Name: Hayate Nakajima][Race:Human*][Age:7]  
[Class: Ninja][Rank: Genin][Type: Stealth/Assault]  
[Strength:13][Perception:15][Endurance:16][Charisma:13][Intelligence:12][Agility:18][Luck:11]  
[Ki:29][Weight:25kg][Height:128cm][Eyes: Red][Hair: Black]  
[Major Skills:]  
[Taijutsu: Basic Ninja Style, Flying Dragon Style Wu Shu - Beginner.]  
[Genjutsu: Daydream, Dispel, Hell Viewing, Mindscape Mirage, Vertigo.]  
[Ninjutsu: Clone, Disguise, Fireball, Fire Dragon (Firehawk), Reinforce Object, Reinforce Self, Shunshin, Shuriken Bunshin, Substitution, Thunderclap, Ventriloquism, Wall Climbing.]  
[Bukijutsu: Shuriken, Kunai, Senbon, Knife, Chakram, Ninja Wire - Basic]  
[Kenjutsu: Basic Kenjutsu, Basic Fencing, Soaring Hawk Style - Beginner]  
[Stealth: Ninjutsu - Hidden Dragon, Ninjutsu - Silent Tiger, Ninjutsu - One With The Shadows]  
[Equipment: Basic Fuuinjutsu Kit, Explosive Tags - 3, Shock Tags - 3, Flash Tags - 4, Smoke Tags - 4, Incendiary Tags - 2, Shuriken - 6, Kunai - 6, Senbon - 4, Genin Ninja Armor, Caltrops - 4, Ninjato, Formal Uniform, Ninja Armor.]  
[Potions: Extra Healing - 4.]  
[Hayate Nakajima is the son of a ninja and Death, who as the last of his clan was sent to England to defend the last of the Longbottom line due to Neiges Longbottom being the Hero of the Battle Of Iron Mountain and acquiring a life debt.]

[Special Skills: Fuuinjutsu - Basic Celestial, Essence Alchemy - Basic, Spirit of the Forgemaster]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> putting a bit more of an RPG spin here. Do you think using the English names or the Japanese names would be better? i went with English because the readers are going to be more familiar with that language, whereas the Japanese names would be more in keeping with the whole ninja-background thing.


End file.
